New Raised Bed Is Completed. 9.24.2020

 This is the first of a planned three new raised beds.  The old ones, made from fir 2 x 6's, are starting to deteriorate.  They have also tended to sink with time, so the lowest 2 x 6's no longer show above ground / mulch level.  I've been building up the soil in them for 8 years, and that is nice.  Everything grows very well in them.  The old beds are also not where I want them now.

I felt a sense of urgency about the first one.  I want it for garlic, which grows very nicely for me in raised beds, better than in the ground.   Also, it needs to be fenced.  Herbivores eat most of my garlic if I leave it unprotected.

This new method makes a bit larger bed from the same size planks, compared to my old method.  My older bed has also sunk quite a bit.  So,  I bought 1/2 yard of topsoil to mix with the original raised bed soil.   At first I was adding the new topsoil to the bottom level, but then I decided it would be better to mix it all together.  Some is uneven but I think it's mostly mixed.  The new topsoil mix is gummy when wet, whereas my mix crumbles somewhat.  Not knowing where that topsoil came from, or what might be in it, I supplemented it.  After mixing together the old and new soil, I added about an inch of aged compost from my yard - a year or two old - and spread a cup of dolomite lime over the entire bed, then turned it a few times with a shovel, and tilled a couple of times with a hand held "claw" tiller tool that I liked.  Then I raked it fairly smooth.

It's been raining, so the soil management was not perfect, but I wanted to get it done.  Maybe I should let the amended soil cure and age and settle a little before planting the garlic, but I might get started soon anyway.  I usually plant it about now.

First Crop from Garden Gold Miniature Peach Tree.

 I planted this peach tree last winter.  I also planted an El Dorado peach tree, which was smaller and did not have any fruits.  The word "tree" is used advisedly - it's only about 3 feet tall, if that.  There was prolific bloom, typical for genetic dwarf peaches.  I allowed about one dozen to stay on the tree.  I want it to stay small.  Growth was really quite good, and the peaches just ripened.  

Garden Gold Peaches.

These are free stone peaches.  The flavor was excellent.  A tree ripened peach is so much better than anything you can buy.

Next comes the challenge.  I'll need to come up with a good cover for the winter.  Genetic Dwarf peaches are highly susceptible to peach leaf curl disease in the Pacific Northwest.  That disease is carried into the buds by rain, starting about November.  So, the tree will need spraying or covering, or both, come November.  I think this year a clear plastic cover will suffice, because the trees are so small.

I will keep the trees at a miniature size.  My goal is something like a tomato plant in size and garden footprint, but a tree instead of an annual vine.   I'll be happy if there are 2 dozen peaches a year.

I had a Garden Gold peach tree in my old Vancouver yard for quite a few years.  I let the size become too big to readily cover, didn't get around to covering it, and it had severe Peach Leaf Curl, killing a lot of the branches.  That cover is very important.  Keeping it small is also important, if you want to be able to cover it.

I also had an El Dorado ganetic dwarf peach tree too.  I kept it in a container.  I moved the container out of the rain for the winter.  That worked very well, but it needed watering two or three times a day on hot summer days.  I think this method that I am trying now will be more workable.

Baked Pasta Sauce. 9.23.2020

 My friend Rich gave me this recipe.  It turned out to be really, really good.  The recipe made use of sauce tomatoes, onion, garlic, and Jalapeños from my garden, which is something I liked about it.

Cut about 10 sauce tomatoes and layer on bottom of oiled casserole dish.

Add one big minced garlic clove.

Add 1/2 chopped medium onion.

Add 3 sliced Jalapeños.

Dust with salt and pepper and some pepper flakes.

Drizzle with 1/4 cup olive oil.

Repeat with another layer of sliced tomatoes, minced garlic, chopped onion, sliced Jalapeños, and the salt, pepper, pepper flakes and olive oil.

Bake at 350 without covering, 50 min.

Here's how it looked before baking.

Here's how it looked after baking.

Here's how it looked on some spaghetti.

There was about 1/2 remaining as a bonus amount (say bonus amount, not left over.  It really is a bonus).  I kept that in the fridge overnight.  Then I air-fried a summer squash, sliced into French fry size slices and some disks, dusted with season salt, garlic powder, pepper, drizzled with olive oil.  Air fried 9 minutes at 400, mix, air fry another 9 minutes at 400.  Then cover with the pasta sauce, which is heated in microwave for a couple minutes.

Here's how that looked.

 Both meals were delicious.  This is one of the best recipes I've made, ever.

Edit:  24 Sept 2020.  This sauce is also delicious on rice. 

 

 

New Raised Bed. 9.23.2020

 This is the first of three new raised beds that I have planned.  The old ones are in a location where I want to plant miniature fruit trees.  They are eight years old, and the untreated fir wood is rotting, especially the lower planks.  

This is part of my effort to build some gardening infrastructure for the future.  These beds are three planks tall - about 18 inches.  This height will be easier to garden as I age.  I will have the beds far enough apart, that I can have a walking assist device or bench between the beds.  Around the beds, I will have tree chip mulch.  The construction is surprisingly easy.  The corners are pre-cast concrete blocks with slots in the sides and a hole through the top.  The hole accommodates a rebar, which is pounded into the ground to hold them in place a little better.  The slots are made to fit a 2 x 8 plank.  I bought 8 foot long planks, the length of the bed.  For the width, I cut them in half, for 4 feet.  I bought treated lumber, and will line with plastic.

After leveling the ground, I lined three sides with plastic, and removed one end to roll the wheel barrow into the bed to dump garden soil.  When I get near completion, I will replace those planks and line the end with plastic before filling the end.

 The bottom is lined with a re-used layer of hardware cloth.  That wasn't big enough, so I added re-used chicken wire to make up the difference.  I folded the chicken wire to double it.  The purpose is to prevent tunneling animals from working their way up into the bed.

 

End removed to allow me to fill using a wheel barrow.  When I'm ready, I can just slide the boards back into the slots.

I wanted to re-use soil from previous raised bed.  That soil has received a lot of compost and some minerals over the years.  The dimension is also nominally 4 feet by 8 feet.  However, the concrete corner blocks actually increase the dimension.  Instead of losing 2 inches each war from butting the corners together, there is about a 2 inch gap in the block, so 4 inches are gained at each corner.  In addition, those old beds  had sunk into the soil over time, so the height isn't as much.  I bought a truckload of top soil. Combining the 1/2 yard of purchased topsoil with the existing soil from one bed, might fill that bed. 

When this is done, I'll plant garlic in this raised bed.  It's the only one that I am really motivated to complete before winter starts.  The others can be done during the winter.  My plan is, one for garlic, one for cucumbers, one for peppers.  There will be room for some other plants.  These are the main ones that benefit from raised beds in my garden.

Redlove Era Apple. 9.19.2020

Today I harvested the first Redlove Era apple, and also a Redlove Calypso and a bunch of others.  This was the first apple from Era, which is in it's second summer now.  The Redlove Calypso has been in the ground less than a year.  It had three apples, and I ate one a month ago.

I forgot to upload a photo of the uncut apples.  I will do so if I can locate it.

For comparison, here are Airlie Red Flesh, Redlove Calypso, Liberty, and Redlove Era.  Liberty is a medium size apple, Airlie Red Flesh is small-ish.  The Calypso and Era apples were small, silver dollar size apples.

Era is much deeper red.  The skin is also more red, compared to Calypso.  Airlie usually has more red or pink compared to this apple.

The Airlie and Liberty were both sweet, apple-flavored apples with almost no sourness.  Calypso was very tart, and not much else.  Redlove Era was really delightful , a fruit or berry flavored apple, tart and sweet, sort of like cranapple.  

Fruit trees usually need a few years for their fruits to reach full size and flavor.  

it's nice to get this taste.  So far, my favorite is Redlove Era.

Slices from Redlove Era apple.  Very tasty.  The photo doesn't quite catch the true red color - a dark scarlet.